


Buying Silence

by BlueNightmare



Category: Shin Sangokumusou | Dynasty Warriors
Genre: Blackmail, Bondage, Dom/sub, F/F, Gags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 20:17:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17393015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueNightmare/pseuds/BlueNightmare
Summary: As Lu Bu and Yuan Shao forge an alliance, a different kind of intrigue occurs in the shadows.





	Buying Silence

**Author's Note:**

> Another old story, with a little more added to the end on a whim. This one is from August 2015 - the era of Dynasty Warriors 8, so it was written with those character looks in mind.

"I heard them plotting, you know."

Those words, whispered against the side of her neck from a pair of blossom-pink lips, were enough to steal Diaochan's attention away from the night's drunken revelry. Her slender body stiffened, visibly tensing beneath her skimpy jeweled silks, but the brunette seductress kept her sky-blue eyes locked upon the carousing officers and ministers in the torch-lit castle courtyard, refusing to acknowledge that she had heard a thing.

Cloaked within the shadows of the doorway behind the other woman, Zhenji smiled in satisfaction, her dark eyes twinkling with cruel amusement. The dancing girl could pretend that she hadn’t noticed the hushed accusation, but her body had betrayed her, and even if it was only in mental discomfort - _at the moment_ \- Zhenji was deeply enjoying watching her squirm.

She had heard the common soldiers gossiping about Diaochan during the formal signing of the alliance between their two forces, the accord that they now celebrated long into the night. Unaware of her presence, they had shared rumors about the gorgeous, graceful woman who stayed at the side of the brutal Lu Bu, the most beautiful flower in the entire world, and desperately hoped to catch even a glimpse of her loveliness while she was here in the territory of the Yuan clan. The adoration in their voices had lit jealous flames in Zhenji’s heart, unused to being usurped as the object of male lust... but at the same time, she could not deny the first flickers of interest.

Moments passed, and Diaochan said nothing. She continued to watch the noisy festivities from the sidelines, pretending to absorb the joyful atmosphere of the celebration, feigning obliviousness to the maneuverings that both women knew were occurring behind the scenes of the rowdy banquet. The brutal Lu Bu and the haughty nobleman Yuan Shao had scarcely seemed to be likely partners, and while their respective strategists had smoothed things over well enough for the two men to put aside their differences and join hands, it was fated not to last.

"He's very clever, that strategist of yours." The raven-haired lady's voice was a soft little purr against the side of Diaochan's throat, despite the poisonous words it carried. Zhenji had intended her tone to be colder, more judgmental, but the scent of soft brunette hair mere inches from her nostrils had intoxicated her, softening her voice and her calculating heart. "Chen Gong, was it? He seems to know just which of my master's men to target, and just which of their buttons to push. Already he is sowing the seeds of the Yuan clan's destruction, am I wrong?"

A life of deception had taught Diaochan to keep her composure and her secrets, but the unexpected sensation of dainty fingers playing through the softness of her ponytail was enough to make her react. She spun around to face her tormentor, her hair and silks whipping in her wake, her small hands rising to drive Zhenji back into the doorway behind her. "What do you _want_!?" she hissed as the shadows of the castle swallowed them both, hiding them from the sight of the courtyard revelers.

Zhenji's response was to look downward, drawing Diaochan’s gaze along with hers. The midnight-haired minx's lips curved into a dirty smile as both women found themselves staring at Zhenji's chest, where Diaochan’s hands rested upon the twin swells of the other woman’s immodestly sheer bodice. “More of this would be nice," Zhenji murmured, chuckling mischievously as the brunette hastily withdrew her hands to her sides.

Despite the dim light, the flush in Diaochan’s cheeks pale cheeks was noticeable enough to widen Zhenji’s smile even further. “I hadn’t expected such bashfulness from the girl who seduced the great Lu Bu into murdering his master,” she murmured, loving the flash of anger in the other woman’s pale blue eyes. “Why so shy?”

“ _What do you want_?” This time there was no urgency in Diaochan’s whisper, merely rage. Her patience and her composure had expired as one, and the only thing keeping her from turning on her heel and leaving or striking the smug expression from Zhenji’s porcelain face was her awareness that the craftily-smiling woman knew things that she should not. If Zhenji reported what she had heard to her husband or her lord, it would all be over. “If you _believe_ you heard such things, why are you speaking to me? Why not run to your master?”

Zhenji took her time in responding. To Diaochan’s intense discomfort, the raven-haired woman had once again lowered her gaze, this time taking a very, _very_ close look at the dancing clothes she wore. The garments were ludicrously revealing, a collection of pink silks patterned with golden thread that left most of her body bare, clinging to her body only by the grace of a series of tiny chains suspended from her jeweled collar. Her breasts were clothed by mere scraps of cloth, concealing but a fraction of her ample chest and leaving almost everything above the waist available to Zhenji’s wandering eyes. Below that was little better, her many-sectioned skirt designed to swirl around her body rather than to hide it, leaving her legs on full display.

Diaochan refused to show her discomfort, even when she caught sight of Zhenji’s tongue darting against her pink lips as she raised her head to meet the dancer’s. “My ‘master’ is a fool, and my husband is not much better,” the other woman whispered, disgust dripping from her every word. “Surely I don’t need to tell you that if you’ve spent any time in their company. If they cannot keep the loyalty of their men, that is their problem. It’s my job to worry about what _I_ want.”

“...And what is that?” Diaochan knew without having to ask, of course. The predatory lust in Zhenji’s eyes was obvious; she had seen the same look on the faces of countless men before, and the nervous twisting it spawned in her stomach was no different for the hungry stare coming from a woman. It was true that she had used sex as a tool of manipulation in the past, turning men against one another with her wiles, but she was far from proud of it, even if she had done it for the sake of the entire land. Her body was a weapon and she knew how to use it, but it made her... less than comfortable.

Zhenji lifted an eyebrow, but her face gave nothing away. “Come with me and I’ll tell you.”

“And if I won’t?” Diaochan found her arms slipping over her chest almost of their own accord, unconsciously shielding herself from the feeling of extreme vulnerability hanging over her.

“I will have a very interesting conversation with my husband about what I heard tonight.” A smile as hard and sharp as a dagger crossed the beautiful noblewoman’s face. “But I’d rather not do that. Not when tonight could be so much more entertaining for the both of us.”

The anxious twisting in Diaochan’s stomach intensified at those words, dancing against her insides like sparks of electricity. Zhenji wanted her... and she was in no position to refuse.

The lack of any response only served to encourage Zhenji further, and she turned her back on Diaochan, raising her hand and crooking a beckoning finger as she walked amidst the shadows. “Don’t keep me waiting.”

Her mind racing, Diaochan let her heeled sandals carry her into the dark.

~ ~ ~

Zhenji’s chambers were silent as the two women entered.

Even when the raven-haired temptress ignited a small fire inside the ornate bronze lantern that stood by the door like a sentry, sending flickering light to every corner of the small but very private room, Diaochan could see no sign that Zhenji’s husband shared this place with her. Perhaps her relationship with him was as icy as she had hinted, after all.

The illumination provided her with her first chance to take a good look at what Zhenji was wearing, and she found herself momentarily lost in the swirls and folds of the other woman’s yellow dress. The garment was much more modest than her own, but it still left much of Zhenji’s chest concealed only by a layer of thin, flimsy cloth that Diaochan could see right through. Her ankle-length skirt covered only her left side, baring both of her slim, fishnet-stocking-clad legs to the world. The outfit was a mixture of the refined and the scandalous, demure only form a distance.

“Enjoying the sights?” 

It was half accusation, half appreciation. Zhenji’s smile was every bit as predatory as it had been before, but there was a slight softness to it as well, her entire bearing a little more relaxed. Perhaps because she was in her own chambers, perhaps because she liked being looked at. “I’m sure you can guess why I’ve brought you here. Do you want me to go running back to my lord and tell him all about your schemes?”

Diaochan hesitated, her fingers curling into her palms. “...No.”

That pleased her. “Then you’ll have to earn my silence. You aren’t the only one who can keep a secret, but you will need to motivate me.”

The dancing girl held her gaze. “You want sex.” 

It was the first time the word had been spoken aloud between them, and privately Diaochan had been hoping that saying it outright would shame Zhenji, but the brazen woman merely beamed in delight, as if she were a teacher whose student had just grasped a difficult concept. “Something like that. Blame my fool of a husband for leaving me so dreadfully unsatisfied. It shouldn’t be a problem for a girl like you, am I right?”

“I’m not some kind of whore!” _Which is more than I can say for you,_ Diaochan almost blurted, but she choked those words down, leashing her temper lest Zhenji bite back. Her position was far too precarious to be speaking her mind, but Zhenji seemed to know just how to needle her, and it was infuriating. “Whatever it is you’ve heard, I only did those things because I had no choice.”

“Oh? Is that why you’re here now?” Zhenji pouted, but it was impossible to tell whether she was faking it or genuinely hurt. “Because you have to be?”

“You _know_ it is.” Diaochan’s sky-blue eyes narrowed. “You know you’re forcing me into this, but you brought me here anyway, so let’s...” Her voice cracked, once, but she pretended it hadn’t. “Let’s just get this over with. I’ll do what you want, you’ll forget about what you heard, and tomorrow I’ll go back to Xiapi with my lord and we’ll pretend this never happened.”

“Perhaps you will play make-believe, but I think I’ll remember this night very, very well.” Again Zhenji licked her lips, but this time it was a more deliberate, languid, lingering display for Diaochan’s benefit. “That aside, we have an agreement. I won’t tell tales, and we will let the mens’ cards fall where they may.”

That was the best she was going to get. Diaochan swallowed, then nodded, the tiny chains crisscrossing her body clinking lightly against each other at even this slight movement. “...Very well.”

“Splendid!” The ecstatic look on Zhenji’s face was genuine, Diaochan could tell, and there was a definite spring in her step as she made her way across the room towards a small door that appeared to lead into a small side chamber. “Stay there and get undressed. I’ll get the rope.”

Diaochan’s delicate finger had already reached the back of her thin metal collar before she realised what Zhenji had said, and her face snapped up to stare at the other woman just as she passed through the door, her eyes widening in alarm. “Rope? You don’t mean... I didn’t agree to-”

“We play on my terms.” There was a smile on Zhenji’s lips as she poked her head back around into the main room, but Diaochan could sense the uncompromising steel behind it. “If you don’t like that, we can always take this up in the dungeons later. After your lover and his men meet the Yuan clan’s swords.”

Silence. Diaochan’s fingers dropped, winding themselves through the patterned silks at her waist in discomfort. She despised the idea of placing herself under this creature’s full control, but... what else could she do? Lu Bu was the greatest of warriors, but his army was a fraction of the size of Yuan Shao’s. He would take it as a challenge, of course... and he would likely die.

“Get undressed, dear.” Zhenji’s deceptively sweet voice flowed from the other room as her raven-black ponytail disappeared through the door. She had won, and she knew it.

It was only when Diaochan’s listless hand drifted against her thigh and brushed cold metal beneath her silks that she realized she had one card left to play.

~ ~ ~

The only warning Zhenji received as she walked back into the room with a large satin bag in her arms was the telltale glint of a blade in the fire-light.

Fortunately for her, the battlefield had honed her reflexes enough that this was all she needed. Instinct kicked in, and she threw her body to the side just as Diaochan sprang upon the spot where she had moments ago stood. The dagger in the dancing girl’s delicate hand was small and lavishly decorated, but its plunge would have been fatal had Zhenji not seen it coming.

She had, and Diaochan’s grunt of frustration was music to her ears, but the graceful dancer quickly found her footing and turned in Zhenji’s direction, a savagery in her sky-blue eyes that looked almost foreign on her lovely face. This was the cold-blooded pragmatist that lay beneath the soft young girl, surely the second-from-last thing Dong Zhuo had seen before Lu Bu had split him in half.

“I can’t let you tell anyone.”

Was she trying to justify herself, even to the woman she was about to kill? Zhenji kept her gaze locked on her, but she dropped her satin bag and took a small step backwards, then another, carrying her closer to a small side table at the edge of the room. Just a few more feet. “I wouldn’t. I gave you my word.”

“Do you think nobody has ever lied to me before?” Diaochan was incredulous, shaking her head as she pursued Zhenji towards the wall. “You’ll do as you please and then tell your husband anyway, and I couldn’t do anything to stop you if I let you... tie me up.”

“There are many things you couldn’t stop me from doing.” Zhenji forced a sultry note into her voice, ignoring the pounding of her heart against her chest. Her hand darted behind her, probing the varnished surface of the table. “But come now, do you really think this is a solution to your problems? What will everyone think when the wife of Yuan Shao’s son turns up dead after the treaty celebrations? The treacherous Lu Bu strikes again. You’ll start the very conflict you hope to avoid.”

“I’ll find someone to take the fall. Some drunken soldier ready to drop his trousers. I’m sure it won’t be hard to find one.” Somehow, Diaochan managed a gentle smile despite the words that were leaving her lips. “Someone with far more motive to kill an attractive noblewoman than their new treaty partners. If we were going to assassinate somebody, why would it be you? Why not your husband, or his father? Someone of value?” The dagger rose in her hand, ready to strike.

Zhenji mirrored her smile, but it did not remain gentle for long. “So you _do_ think I’m attractive.”

She burst into motion, her hand whipping out from behind her with her small wooden flute grasped between her fingers. Before Diaochan realized what was happening, she brought the instrument to her lips, pressing a shaking breath into the hole that sent a dull, trembling note of music throughout the room.

By the time Diaochan caught on, it was too late.

The second note was much more focused, a piercing sound that stung the ears, but what it lacked in beauty it made up for in potency. A wave of sickly blue light pulsed from the flute as the magic in the musical weapon took hold of Zhenji’s breath, spreading in all directions and overtaking Diaochan before she could leap back. The air throbbed all around her, freezing against her skin, filling her body with an overwhelming sluggishness that her screaming mind could not throw off.

The flute departed Zhenji’s smiling lips. For Diaochan, time had slowed to a crawl, but for the rest of the world, it flowed as normal. The dancer recoiled from the ear-violating sound, her hands flying to the sides of her head, but it was an act played out in slow-motion before Zhenji’s eyes. Every strand of Diaochan’s lustrous brown hair swept around her body with impossible slowness, and her fingers began to tighten around the jeweled grip of her dagger several seconds after Zhenji had removed it from her grip, her every tiny act delayed and hindered by the flute’s malevolent magic.

The rest was simple. By the time Diaochan’s hands reached her neck to protect the collar that held her silken scraps against her body, she was already naked.

Kicking aside the collection of chains and patterned cloth that had fallen around her prey’s dainty feet, Zhenji allowed herself only a moment to take in the dancer’s unclothed beauty before returning to the spot where she had dropped her satin bag and opening it up. Her fingers closed around the rough surface of a coiled length of rope and began to draw it forth. Her flute’s magic would not last forever, and she planned to take full advantage.

~ ~ ~

The chilling grasp of Zhenji’s sorcery began to recede at last, leeching out of Diaochan’s body and bringing her back into sync with the world around her, but the damage had already been done.

Ropes clutched at her body like tightened fists, constricting her body into painful contortions, biting into her bare skin from all directions in response to even the slightest movement. Zhenji had done an effective job of binding her, she was forced to admit - her bare legs were folded beneath her, lashed ankle-to-thigh, keeping her kneeling on the floor and punishing her should she dare try to rise. Her upper arms were bound tightly against her sides, the chafing cords winding around her torso to keep her immobile, winding over and above and below her breasts and squeezing the naked mounds outward and upward in a purposely lewd display.

The worst treatment had been reserved for her forearms, just to be sure that she couldn’t work her way free. Zhenji had been particularly spiteful with them, wrenching them behind her back and forcing her palms to meet a mere inch below her neck. The awkward angle placed tremendous strain on her arms, sending threads of pain digging into her muscles, but Diaochan was left with no way to shift them to a more comfortable position, her wrists bound and fastened to the back of the ropes circling her chest, resulting in a nasty yank against her vulnerable breasts each time she tried to move them.

She quickly learned not to.

“Welcome back.” Zhenji smiled down at her, imperiously standing over her like a queen before a kneeling subject. “I wasn’t going to be quite this strict with you tonight, but you’ve more than earned it.”

“Please.” It wounded Diaochan’s pride to beg, but the thought of being trapped in this painful position for long was too much to bear, and her body was already pleading for mercy. “I-I’m sorry... I’ll behave, just...”

“Just _what_? Loosen the ropes a little?” Mocking Diaochan with a smug smile, Zhenji shook her head as she dropped to her knees, bringing herself down to the dancing girl’s level. “No, no, no. You’re far too dangerous to go easy on, and frankly, I think I like you like this.” She lifted her hand to caress Diaochan’s blushing cheek, chuckling delightedly as the beautiful young woman turned her head away. “Maybe if you _prove_ that you can behave yourself...”

There was no need to question her meaning. Zhenji was already leaning forward, her soft pink lips meaningfully puckered, dark eyes watching expectantly.

Under less painful circumstances Diaochan would have defied her, but the strain on her arms was sending constant signals of distress screaming along her nerves to her brain, gnawing at her thoughts and destroying any semblance of concentration. All she could comprehend was the pain, and the fastest way to make it stop was to give in.

So, she did.

Zhenji’s lips were as soft and warm as they looked, a world away from the brutal roughness of Lu Bu’s hungry mouth, but the raven-haired vixen proved just as commanding as the Flying General himself, seizing full control of the kiss and locking her palms around Diaochan’s face to keep her from shying away. A slippery tongue pressed against the dancing girl’s lips and she didn’t hesitate to let it pass, allowing Zhenji to explore her mouth as deeply as she pleased.

Despite her revulsion, she forced herself to welcome her predator, kissing her back with all of the enthusiasm she could manage. Her mind longed to withdraw and let the other woman have her way with her body, just as she had retreated into herself while the slobbering Dong Zhuo had claimed her, but the pain radiating from her twisted arms kept her in the moment, refusing to let her escape Zhenji’s amorous embrace. She had no option but to remain, and to endure.

At last the noblewoman deigned to break away, a look of satisfaction on her devilishly lovely face, her tongue sweeping the remnants of Diaochan’s taste from her lips and drawing it into her mouth. “Very good,” she hummed, resting her palm upon the dancer’s forehead and delivering an appreciative pat. “I suppose experience counts for something, hmm?”

Diaochan stared back at her, disgusted, her lips still glistening with Zhenji’s saliva. The lingering wetness triggered her reflexes, and she instinctively moved her arm in an attempt to wipe the remnants of their kiss away, but her reward was a savage jolt running through her straining limb from shoulder to wrist and an uncomfortable tightening of the ropes clutching at her breasts, drawing them tighter into her sensitive mounds. “A- _aah_!”

Her cry of pain amused Zhenji, a musical laugh filling the torch-lit room. “I’m really starting to like you, Diaochan. You make such cute little sounds.”

Diaochan let her eyelids slide shut, begging the darkness she found to swallow her up and hide her. The knives of pain driving into her arms had begun to dull somewhat, if only because her body was slowly becoming used to being forced into contortions. It still hurt, but at least it as no longer painful enough to distract her from all else. “What are you going to do?”

“Ooh, you sound so nervous...” Again Zhenji was moved to laughter, this time a more sinister chuckle. Her hand sought out the long, light blue sash that had once been a part of Diaochan’s outfit and drew it across the floor towards her, collecting it in her palms and folding it over as the dancing girl looked on in confusion. “Don’t worry, dear... I’ll take good care of you tonight.”

The sash was forced between her teeth before she could turn her head away. The devious noble took her time in wrapping the silken cloth around Diaochan’s head again and again, burying her mouth in circuits of perfumed cloth, each loop drawing the corners of her lips further back and making her wince a little more. The makeshift gag wasn’t enough to silence her yelp of pain as the sash was tied behind her head in a final, brutal knot, but when she tried to spit a protest at the sadistic vixen, the cloth between her lips was thick and tight enough to muffle her words into incoherent grunts.

Her glare got the message across on its own, but seeing the beautiful dancer brimming with anger and frustration merely amused Zhenji even more. “Don’t make that face. You should be grateful that I’m giving you an opportunity to protect that animal you call a lover.” A mean-spirited smile spread across her face, a silent taunt. “All you have to give me in return is one single night. Is that truly so much to ask of you?”

That stung, and Diaochan lowered her face in shame. Was it? Lu Bu could be a thoughtless, treacherous brute, but he loved her. He had been kind to her and protected her even when it seemed that the rest of the world had turned against her. Didn’t she owe him her protection in return?

If he died tonight and the army he had built with his own two hands crumbled away, Diaochan would have nothing and nobody left in the world.

When she dared look up again, she found Zhenji staring right back at her, a knowing, superior gleam in her dark eyes. Both women knew that she was trapped, even without the ropes imprisoning her in their secure, constricting grip. It was this or blood.

“I thought you’d see it my way.” Zhenji’s hand surged to Diaochan’s chest and wrapped itself in the net of ropes knotted around her breasts, giving the chafing harness a swift twist and a vicious upward tug. The pressure forced her bosom to lift along with it, the thick bands of rope above and beneath her breasts cleaving together around their unprotected softness and biting deep. Her agonized cry lasted only a few moments before Zhenji relented and released her sadistic grip, but the ache lingered as Diaochan rocked back and forth, huffing strangled breaths into her cruelly strict gag.

“I said I’d take good care of you, and I meant it. I’ll make sure _some_ of what I do to you feels good.” The noblewoman’s fingers snaked between Diaochan’s thighs, and what they found there made the dancing girl shriek and squirm, distracting her long enough for Zhenji’s other hand to alight back upon the ropes squeezing her chest. Both of her clever hands moved at once, and Diaochan’s saliva-soaked gag could not hold back her confused, trembling howl as her body was manipulated around her. Pleasure, and pain.

“But don’t think for one moment I’ve forgotten the knife.”

With that final word, three fingers stabbed inside of Diaochan, thrusting deep and hard and merciless, and while the dancing girl had learned to take far worse inside herself she still cried out, bucking and twisting. She was accustomed to brutality in sex, whether it was with Lu Bu or his long-fallen master or the other men she had entertained in her lifetime of seduction and manipulation, but the penetration of Zhenji's clever claws was _different_ , the way they curled inside of her precise and calculated, aimed not to take pleasure but to inflict it.

Of course, she made certain that it hurt as well. The raven-haired woman's eyes danced in delight as she spread her fingers apart inside their warm new home, her marionette's pretty face tensing at the strain on her pussy, her breath seizing behind her gag. Sky-blue eyes stared into space as her body struggled to adjust, glittering with pain, only to snap open as those wicked digits began to pump in and out, spreading her open again and again...

Zhenji waited until the dancer's muffled sounds evolved from distress to grudging enjoyment before she pulled her fingers all the way out of her, holding them aloft in the candlelight, glistening and sticky. "Not so greedy, blossom," she chided, and her soaked hand cracked across Diaochan's face in a stinging slap before the brunette saw it coming, painting her cheek in wet, stinging pain. 

"We have a whole night to fill, and you haven't suffered nearly enough for my tastes."


End file.
